Apparatus for cooling walls.



PATENTED FEB. 28, 1905.

L. O. BRIGHTBILL.

APPARATUS FOR COOLING WALLS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.17,1904.

Z Z W W fi w w w Patented February 28, 1905.

PATENT O FFICE.

LORENZO OTTIS BRIGHTBILL, OF GLEN WILTON, VIRGINIA.

APPARATUS FOR COOLING WALLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 783,413, dated February 28, 1905.

Application filed March 1'7, 1904. Serial No. 198,697.

To all whmn/ it may concern:

Be it known that I, LORENZO OTTIS BRIGHT- BILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Glen \Vilton, in the county of Botetourt and State of Virginia,.have invented a new and useful Apparatus for Cooling Walls, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for cooling walls, and has reference more especially to apparatus for cooling the boshes of blastfurnaces.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a simple, eflicient, inexpensive, and easily-applied apparatus of the character specified which will distribute water uniformly over the outer surface of a heated wall and which can be easily kept in condition to render thoroughly satisfactory service.

A further object of the invention is to provide in apparatus of the character specified a novel combination of troughs and supplypipes by means of which water may be distributed over the surface of a heated wall more evenly than by means of perforated spraying-pipes and which will not be so difficult to clean in the event of clogging, as the spraying-pipes necessarily are.

With the objects above mentioned and others in View, as will appear-when the invention is more fully disclosed, the same consists in the novel construction, combination, and arrangement of parts of a cooling apparatus hereinafter fully described and claimed, and illustrated in a preferred form or embodiment in the accompanying drawings, it being understood that various changes in the form,

.proportions, and exact mode of assemblage of the elements exhibited may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or sacrificing the advantages thereof.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a view in elevation of the lower portion of a blast-furnace, showing a cooling apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention applied thereto in position for operation. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view upon the line 2 2 of-Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail view, in vertical section, through a portion of a vertical furnace-wall and one of the troughs of the cooling apparashown in Fig. 3.

tus. Fig. 4 is a detail view in elevation of a portion of one of the troughs, part of the shield or deflector being broken away to show the form of the apertures formed in the side of the trough proper.

Referring to the drawings, in which corresponding parts are designated by similar characters of reference throughout the several view, B designates the bosh of a blast-furnace, which is of the ordinary downwardlytapered form, and 1, 2, and 3 represent horizontally-disposed annular troughs mounted upon the exterior of the bosh at uniform distances apart. Each of the troughs 1, 2, and 3 is divided by partitions 4: into a plurality of sections, each trough in the present instance being divided into eight sections. The troughs are preferably formed of sheet-metal bands attached at their lower edges to the outer surface of the wall of the furnace-bosh and having their upper edges spaced a slight distance from the surface of the wall, as The troughs, therefore, are widest at the top and narrow gradually and uniformly toward the bottom where they join the Wall of the furnace. Each of the sheetmetal bands which form the troughs 1, 2, and 3 is provided near its upper edge with a series of apertures 5, each of which is of the form best shown in Fig. 1, being formed on a circular curve at the top and presenting a V-shaped notch at the bottom. The provision of the notches at the bottoms of the apertures 5 is to insure the passage of liquid through the apertures without spur-ting.

On the outer surface of each of the troughs 1, 2, and 3 I provide a shield or deflector, the several shields being designated 6, 7, andS, respectively. These shields are, like the troughs, preferably formed of bands of sheet metal and are spaced some distance from the troughs at their upper margins and at their lower margins are spaced very slightly from the troughs to afford narrow passages for the downward flow of the water which escapes from the troughs through the openings 5. The shields 6, 7, and 8 may be mounted in position upon the exterior of the troughs in any preferred manner; but I preferably employ light hangers or clips 9, engaging the troughs and shields at their upper margins, and insert the 1 ends of the shields into thespaces between the troughs and annular hoops 10, which are mounted on the troughs between their upper and lower margins and are spaced therefrom by small spacing-blocks 11.

The troughs may be supplied with water in various ways; but I have illustratedan effective supply apparatus by means of which the water may be simultaneously supplied to all the sections of each trough and the rate of supply in every partof the apparatus accurately controlled. The Water-supply devices include a main supply-pipe 12, which is connected with an annular distributing-pipe 13. which extends around the furnace-bosh near the bottom thereof and has extending upward therefrom a suflicient number of branch pipes to supply the several sections of all the troughs. In the form of the invention illustrated I provide four separate sets of branch pipes, three pipes being included in each set and one pipe in each set being provided to supply water to one of the troughs mounted upon the wall of the bosh. The branch pipes 14, which supply water to the uppermost trough, which is of largest diameter, extend upward substantially vertical, and pipes 15 and 16, which supply the lower troughs, are inclined slightly inward toward the bosh, as shown. Each of the branch pipes 14:, 15, and 16 terminates at its upper end in two bent terminals which supply water to adjacent sections of one of the troughs, and each of the bent terminals is provided with a separate valve to control the escape of water therethroughl In order to regulate the supply of water to the different troughs without the necessity of operating all of the valves in the terminals of the branch pipes, each of the pipes 14, 15, and 16 is provided with a valve, as shown at 17, 18, and 19, respectively, and in order to effect the removal of the water after it has become heated by contact with the wall of the bosh I provide at the bottom of the bosh a waste-trough 20, from which a drain-pipe 21 extends to any suitable point for discharge.

In the operation of the cooling apparatus as above-described water is supplied through the main supply-pipe to the distributing-pipe and is allowed to flow thence, through the branch pipes with their bent and forked terminals to the several sections of the troughs forming the cooling apparatus. The valves in the different parts of the apparatus are set to permit the flow of water at the desired rate, and the action of the apparatus is automatic as long as the water is allowed to flow tl'irough the supply-pipe and the openings in the trough are not clogged. By regulating the rate of flow of the water through the branch pipes the whole surface of the bosh may be subjected to' the cooling effect of a sheet of flowing water, and as the water is distributed directly to a plurality of points upon the surface of the bosh all parts of the surface are simultaneously subjected to the action of cool fresh water. It is true, of course, that the water from the upper troughs becomes slightly heated before it reaches the lowermost trough; but by making the apertures in the troughs progressively larger from the uppermost to the lowermost trough and by supplying more water at the lowermost trough than to the troughs above it a substantially uniform cooling effect may be obtained over all portions of the surface of the bosh.

While I have for convenience illustrated the invention as embodied in an apparatus including only three troughs, it is obvious that the number of troughs which may be applied to the outer surface of a bosh may be greatly increased, if desired, or a smaller number of troughs may serve instead of those shown.

While the apparatus is intended primarily for cooling furnace-boshes, and I have shown the apparatus as applied to a furnace-bosh in Figs. 1 and 2, it is obvious that a similar arrangement of cooling devices may be employed upon any walls which it is desired to cool, and I have shown in Fig; 3 an application of the invention to a vertical wall.

WVhen the apparatus is in operation, the water rises in the troughs until it begins to escape through the apertures 5 thereof, and flowing through said apertures it strikes against the shields or deflectors 6, 7, and 8, is directed in= ward and downward into contact with the outer surface of the troughs, and flowing downward through the passages between the shields or deflectors and the troughs it spreads over and forms a substantially continuous sheet of flowing water upon the exterior of the wall to which the apparatus is applied.

By arranging the several troughs in horizontal planes I am enabled to insure a substantially uniform depth of the water in the troughs, and by providing supply-pipes at a plurality of points in each trough I am enabled to insure a uniform temperature throughout the water in each trough, thus preventing unequal cooling of different portions of the furnace-wall, with all the consequent disadvantages thereof.

While no devices have been shown for that purpose, it is obvious that, if necessary, the water supplied through the pipe 12 may be previously cooled to any desired temperature by any of the ordinary devices employed for that purpose.

From the foregoing description of the construction and operation of my invention it will be noted that all parts of the troughs are readily accessible, and in theevent of any of the apertures in the walls of the troughs becoming clogged, so that the flow of water from the different parts of any trough is not uniform, it will be extremely easy to locate the clogged apertures and to remove the material by which the apertures are obstructed. In order to facilitate the removal of all obstructing material from the distributing-apertures of the apparatus, I have made use of troughs having perforations for distributing the water outward instead of the pipes ordinarily employed and provided with apertures for directing water against the furnace-wall. When pipes with perforations therein are used instead of open troughs, the accumulation of solid matter within the pipes frequently obstructs the openings therein to such extent that it becomes practically impossible to remove the material without entirely disassembling the elements of the apparatus, and if the available water-supply does not yield very pure water the accumulation of solid matter within the pipes occurs very rapidly indeed. With open troughs,however, the accumulation of solid matter by settling or by precipitation in the troughs is a matter of but little importance, because the removal of such solid matter from the troughs from time to time may be very readily effected. Furthermore, when solid matter is deposited in the troughs it settles to the bottom thereof and does not tend to obstruct the openings through which the water escapes until the troughs have become practically filled with solid material. Hence the apparatus will operate with a very tolerable degree of efliciency for a very long time and the necessity for frequent cleaning is entirely obviated.

A special feature of the present invention is the novel arrangement of the outwardly-discharging troughs and the shields or deflectors upon the exterior of the troughs to direct the outwardly-flowing water back against thesides of the troughs, whence itflows downward over the outer surface of the heated wall. This arrangement is preferable to spray-pipes discharging directly against the heated wall, because a more uniform distribution of the water on the exterior of the heated wall is obtained and because the loss of the water from evaporation and spurting is reduced.

Having thus described the construction and operation of my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. In cooling apparatus, the combination with a wall, of a trough mounted on the wall and having outwardly-discharging apertures, means for supplying cooling fluid to said trough, and a shield or deflector extending across the entire surface of the trough and disposed in the path of the fluid escaping through said apertures for spreading the fluid from the trough in a continuous film over the surface of the wall.

2. In cooling apparatus, the combination with a wall, of a trough gradually decreasing in width toward its bottom and mounted on the exterior surface of the wall, means for supplying cooling fluid to said trough, and a deflector or shield spaced from the trough and extending across the entire surface of the latter for spreading the fluid from said trough in a continuous filmover the surface of the wall.

3. In cooling apparatus, the combination with a wall, of a trough mounted upon said wall and provided with outwardly-discharging apertures presenting substantially V-shaped notches at the bottom, and a deflector or shield disposed in the path of the fluid escaping through said apertures for spreading the fluid from the trough over the surface of the wall.

4. In cooling apparatus, the combination with a wall, of a trough mounted on said Wall and divided into a plurality of sections, independently-controlled devices for supplying fluid to each of said sections, and a deflector or shield for directing the flow of fluid from said trough over the surface of the wall.

5. In cooling apparatus, the combination with a wall, of aseries of superposed independent distributing-troughs each having fluid-discharge devices, separately-controlled devices for supplying fluid to each of said troughs, a 9

waste-trough to receive the fluid escaping from all of said distributing troughs, and outwardly-flared plates extending across the entire surface of the troughs and disposed in the path of the fluid-discharge devices for spreading the fluid from the troughs in a continuous film over the surface of the wall.

6. In cooling apparatus, the combination with a wall, of an outwardly-flared fluid-distributing trough mounted on the exterior of the wall, and an outwardly-flared plate extending across the entire surface of the trough and spaced from the lower end of the latter for spreading the fluid escaping from the trough in acontinuous film over the surface of the wall.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my ownI have hereto aflixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

LORENZO O'ITIS BRIGHTBILL.

Witnesses:

M. E. BoYER, WILTON (Joox. 

